• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2021

The main objective of this study is to present a fast and reliable approach to predict the swelling potential of clay-bearing rocks. Investigations showed that there is a good correlation between the swelling potential of a rock and its desire to absorb water due to its clay content which could be measured using the "Contact Angle" test as one of the most common ways to determine the wettability. In this test, the angle between a water drop and the flat rock surface on which it rests is measured. The present method is very fast and returns repeatable results and requires minimal sample preparation. Only having a saw-cut surface of a sample with any shape is all one needs to perform this test. The logic behind this approach is that the swelling potential of a rock is a function of its mineral content and molecular structure, which are not only distributed in the bulk of the sample but also reflected on its surface. Therefore, to evaluate swelling behavior, it is not necessary to wait for a sample to get wet all the way to its "internal structure" (which, due to the low permeability of clay-bearing rocks, is very slow and time-consuming). Instead, one can have a good sense of swelling potential by studying its surface. Parametric studies on the effect of moisture content, porosity, and surface roughness on the contact angle measurements showed that using a saw-cut oven-dried sample is a convenient way to evaluate the swelling potential by this method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2016

The U-Zr or U-TRU-Zr cylindrical metallic fuel slug used in fast reactors is known to swell significantly and to grow during irradiation. In neutronics simulations of metallic-fueled fast reactors, it is assumed that the slug has swollen and contacted cladding, and the bonding sodium has been removed from the fuel region. In this research, a realistic burnup-dependent fuel-swelling simulation was performed using Monte Carlo code McCARD for a single-batch compact sodium-cooled breed-and-burn reactor by considering the fuel-swelling behavior reported from the irradiation test results in EBR-II. The impacts of the realistic burnup-dependent fuel swelling are identified in terms of the reactor neutronics performance, such as core lifetime, conversion ratio, axial power distribution, and local burnup distributions. It was found that axial fuel growth significantly deteriorated the neutron economy of a breed-and-burn reactor and consequently impaired its neutronics performance. The bonding sodium also impaired neutron economy, because it stayed longer in the blanket region until the fuel slug reached 2% burnup.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.478-485
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• 2013

In this study, hydrogels with fast swelling and high absorbent properties were prepared using biopolymers approved as a food additive and their swelling properties were characterized. To improve the swelling properties of conventional hydrogels, we formed gas bubbles using a foaming agent in the process of preparing hydrogels and characterized in terms of equilibrium swelling ratio, swelling kinetics and cytotoxicity. In particular, alginate hydrogels observed by a digital microscope have an open-pore channels structure with the sizes of hundreds micrometers. Also, the cell viability of all hydrogels were found to be much higher than that of poly(acrylic acid).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.520-525
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• 2011

Superporous hydrogels (SPHs) with fast swelling and superabsorbent properties are useful materials in various biomedical fields, by improving the swelling properties of conventional hydrogels based on their unique porous structure. In this study, Eudragit polymers were used as coating materials to control the swelling properties of poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) based SPHs by environmental pH. The SPHs were coated with Eudragit L100 and S100 that have different pH characteristics as enteric coating materials by a dip coating method, and their pH dependent swelling behaviors were observed in various pH environments. The swelling of SPHs was inhibited at a low pH range, but significantly enhanced above a characteristic pH of Eudragit polymers. This pH dependent swelling behavior of hydrogels could be modulated by the characteristics of the enteric coating polymers.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.263-268
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• 2009

Superporous Hydrogels (SPHs) have been extensively investigated for various biomedical applications due to their fast swelling and superabsorbent properties. In this study, glycol chitosan that is one of most abundant natural polymers was used as a cross-linking agent instead of bisacrylamide (BIS), which is a broadly used crosslinking agent for preparation of SPHs. Glycol chitosan was modified to have reactive vinyl groups by chemical conjugation with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The vinyl group-containing glycol chitosan (GC-GMA) was characterized by FT-IR and $^1H$-NMR measurements. SPHs have been prepared in various synthetic conditions to establish the optimum synthetic process for making superporous structure, where the inner pores are interconnected to each other to form a open channel structure. Various SPHs with different GC-GMA contents have been successfully prepared and have been observed to show faster swelling properties than other conventional SPHs. From the study on the swelling behavior of SPHs, the GC-GMA content is considered to be an important factor for controlling their swelling properties.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2013

Fast-grown wood generally contains a high proportion of juvenile wood that results in inferior dimensional stability and durability against biological deteriorations. In the present research, the Acacia mangium wood from plantation forests in Vietnam was treated with high temperature in air. The effects of heat treatment on physical properties of Acacia mangium wood, including mass loss (ML), water absorption (WA), water-repellent effectiveness (WRE) and anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) were examined. The results showed that the dimensional stability and the water-repellent effectiveness are increased by about 15-46% and 8-18%, respectively. However, the mass and dimension of wood are decreased. The results also indicated that both treatment temperature and treatment duration significantly affect the wood properties of Acacia mangium. It is thus concluded that heat treatment demonstrates an interesting potential to improve the wood quality of Acacia mangium for solid timber products. This technology provides an environmentally safe method of protecting sustainable common woods to give a new generation of value-added biomaterials with increased stability without the use of toxic chemicals.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.567-578
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• 2019

A common problem with fast-growing hardwoods is dimensional instability that limits use of their wood. In this study, we investigated the effects of pre-drying methods, temperatures, and heating duration on the specific gravity, water absorption, and dimensional stability of three tropical fast-growing hardwoods, jabon (Neolamarckia cadamba Roxb.), sengon (Falcataria moluccana Miq.), and mangium (Acacia mangium Willd.). Wood samples were pre-dried by two methods (fan and oven at $40^{\circ}C$), and heat treatments were performed at three temperatures (120, 150, and $180^{\circ}C$) for two different time periods (2 and 6 hours). The specific gravity, water absorption, dimensional stability, and structural changes of the samples were evaluated. The results revealed that heat treatments slightly reduced the specific gravity of all three wood species. In addition, the heat treatments reduced water absorption and significantly improved dimensional stability of the samples. Oven pre-drying followed by heat treatment at $180^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours resulted in good physical improvement of jabon and sengon wood. Fan pre-drying followed by heat treatment at $180^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours improved the physical properties of mangium wood. The heat treatment shows a promising technique for improving the physical characteristic of fast growing hardwoods.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2003

The comb-type grafted polymer hydrogels, which composed of N-isopropylacrylamide monomer and oligo(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-tert-butylacrylamide) [oligo(NIPAAm-co-t-BAM)], were synthesized by redox polymerization in 5~10% methanol aqueous solution using ammonium peroxodisulfate (APS) at 4 oC for 24h. The lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) of the comb-type grafted hydrogels were decreased with increase of t-BAM content in the grafted copolymer. We observed the effect of crosslinker and concentration of oligo(NIPAAm-co-t-BAM) on the shrinking/swelling ratio of hydrogels. Changes of shrinking/swelling ratio were decreased with increase of concentration of crosslinker. The increase of grafted oligo(NIPAAm-co-t-BAM) in the hydrogel shows an fast changes of shrinking/ swelling rate. The comb-type grafted hydrogels are expected to be valuable for the sensing materials of time-temperature labels(TTLs).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.469-476
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• 2009

In this study, biodegradable superporous hydrogels(SPHs) with fast swelling and superabsorbent properties were prepared using biodegradable crosslinkers and their physicochemical properties were characterized. A biodegradable crosslinker (PLA-PEG-PLA DA) was synthesized by a ring opening polymerization of D,L-lactide (LA) using hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) as a macroinitiator, followed by diacrylation of the end groups for the introduction of polymerizable vinyl groups. Various kinds of hydrogels with different chemical compositions were prepared and characterized in terms of swelling ratio, swelling kinetics, and biodegradation properties. The synthetic results were confirmed by $^1H$-NMR, FT-IR and GPC measurements, and the porous structures of the prepared SPHs and their porosities were identified by a scanning electron microscope and mercury porosimetry, respectively. The physicochemical properties of SPHs could be controlled by varying their chemical compositions and their cytotoxicity were found to be very low by MTT assay.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.161-163
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• 2005

In the reconstruction of the hard tissue defect of the oral cavity, the usefulness of the chin bone graft, one of the intraoral donor site, is gradually increased. The advantages include reduced resorption rate after graft due to its membranous bone nature, relatively ease to harvest under local anesthesia, reduced operative time because of the same operative field, decreased morbidity, and relatively large amount of bone can be harvested compared to other intraoral donor site. It has also postoperative complications including paresthesia of the lip or chin area, discomfort of lower anterior teeth, and facial swelling around chin area. Of these complications, facial swelling occurs more frequently, is more severe as a early postoperative discomfort, and prevents fast recover of patient's social activity since this procedure is generally accomplished in the outpatient base under local anesthesia. So we applied a modified " gull-wing" type incision to minimize this complication, and now we report this simple but effective surgical technique with clinically favorable result.